The Grand Line, off the coast of Alabasta.
The Flame Emperor cut through the scalding waves, steam rising from the water on either side as though the entire sea had been brought to a boil. But this was no natural phenomenon-a sandstorm that blotted out the sky was advancing toward the coastline fifty nautical miles ahead.
"The scale of this..." Ace stood at the bow, flames dancing at his fingertips. "It's even crazier than the blizzard on Drum Island."
Lin Yan rested one hand on the mast, his Observation Haki already spread out. In his perception, the sandstorm had not formed naturally. Every grain of sand spun, gathered, and reassembled under the control of some will. A powerful presence lay at its center, like a venomous scorpion in the desert, lurking in the shadows as it waited for prey.
"Crocodile." Lin Yan spoke the name. "He really is impatient. We've barely entered Alabasta's waters, and he's already sent us a 'welcome gift.'"
Clutching a thick medical tome, Chopper poked his head out of the cabin and twitched his little nose. "Humidity... 0.3%? That's impossible! How could it be this dry at sea?"
"Because the sand has sucked out all the moisture." Robin's voice drifted down from the lookout. At some point, she had taken her place there, wearing a long, dark purple dress and holding a cup of hot coffee. "Crocodile's Sand-Sand Fruit can instantly drain the moisture from anything it touches. The moisture in these waters has already become nourishment for his sandstorm."
Ace turned to look at her. "You certainly know a lot about it."
"As the former vice president of Baroque Works, I had to know what my boss could do." Robin sipped her coffee, her tone as calm as if she were discussing the weather.
Up in the lookout, Tashigi gripped Shigure's hilt, her palm sweating. She already knew that their enemy this time was one of the Shichibukai-a legal pirate recognized by the World Government, with the privilege of calling on Marine resources. Yet the Flame Emperor Pirates were going out of their way to provoke someone like that.
"Captain!" Isuka poked her head out of the wheelhouse. "The sandstorm is speeding up! At this rate, it'll reach Nanohana Harbor in three minutes! There are at least five thousand civilians there!"
Lin Yan said nothing. He merely took his hand off the mast and walked toward the bow.
He moved slowly, but each step left a charred footprint on the deck-not from burning, but from heat so intense that it carbonized the planks. By the time he reached the figurehead, his eyes had turned a molten, reddish gold.
"Need a hand, big brother?" Ace asked.
"No." Lin Yan raised his right hand. "Let me show you another way to use the Flame-Flame Fruit."
He spread his fingers and aimed at the distant sandstorm.
No flames erupted. No waves of heat surged. Yet the sea within a one-kilometer radius of the Flame Emperor suddenly boiled! Not bubbled-truly boiled. The seawater vaporized instantly, becoming dense white steam that shot into the sky!
[Furnace-Furnace Fruit · Stage One: Steam Pressurization]
Lin Yan silently recited the system panel in his mind. This was a new form he had unlocked by fusing the [Flame-Flame Fruit] and [Iron Fist] templates after fighting Wapol's metal giant in the Drum Kingdom. The principle was simple: use extreme heat to instantly vaporize liquid, producing immense expansion pressure. But it demanded extraordinary control-slightly too little heat would prevent complete vaporization, while slightly too much would trigger a steam explosion.
Now, an explosion was not what he wanted.
"Compress."
Lin Yan slowly curled his fingers inward.
As though controlled by an invisible hand, the steam filling the sky began collapsing inward and condensing. The white mist turned milky, then became a translucent liquid, before finally condensing into a pure white sphere thirty meters across in front of the bow.
Inside the sphere, the pressure skyrocketed.
"What is that..." Tashigi murmured.
Robin set down her coffee cup, her gaze grave. "Instantly vaporizing seawater, then compressing it to the limit... What is he planning?"
The answer soon became clear.
The sandstorm had advanced to within thirty nautical miles, its sky-obscuring yellow sand crashing toward them like a tsunami. An enormous face formed at its leading edge-an avatar Crocodile had shaped from sand, wearing a mocking, savage grin.
"You brat with a death wish, daring to enter my territory-"
He never finished.
Lin Yan thrust his right hand forward.
"Steam Cannon."
Vmmmm-!!!
The maximally compressed steam sphere abruptly launched-not toward the sandstorm, but toward the sea in front of it.
BOOM-!!!!
The sphere exploded the instant it entered the water.
No, it was not an explosion, but a "release"-the terrifying pressure stored inside burst free in an instant, shoving all the seawater it touched in every direction. At the same time, Lin Yan clawed at the sky with his left hand.
"Heat Recovery."
He drew the heat he had just expended vaporizing the seawater back out of the steam, gathering all of it into his left palm. It formed a blazing white orb too bright to look at, its temperature at least eight thousand degrees.
The sandstorm arrived.
The enormous face of yellow sand opened its jaws, intent on swallowing the Flame Emperor along with that entire stretch of sea.
Lin Yan gently pressed the orb in his left hand against the steam shock wave released by his right.
"Furnace: Steam Slaughter."
The simplest physical reaction: an extremely hot object coming into contact with a vast quantity of water vapor.
HISSS-!!!!!!!
The world turned white.
Not light, but steam-ultra-hot steam of extreme density spread outward at the speed of a shock wave. Wherever it passed, it forced the sea down into an enormous depression five kilometers across. Seawater poured furiously back in around the edges, raising a ring-shaped tsunami a hundred meters high.
And the sandstorm...
Vanished.
Vanished in the literal sense.
The instant the yellow sand controlled by Crocodile's will touched the ultra-hot steam, its internal moisture evaporated completely, destroying the grains' structure and turning the finely controlled "controllable sand" into ordinary "dead sand." Cut off from the Devil Fruit's power, tens of millions of tons of yellow sand collapsed like a giant stripped of its skeleton, cascading into the sea and throwing up countless muddy splashes.
The sky cleared.
Sunlight spilled over the sea once more, illuminating the bizarre scene ahead of the Flame Emperor: a circular stretch of sea five kilometers across, its water hopelessly murky and filled with floating yellow sand that had lost its activity. Beyond the circle lay normal, clear blue water, the boundary so distinct that it looked as though someone had drawn it with a ruler.
Silence reigned aboard the ship.
Ace gaped for a long moment before managing, "...That works too?"
Robin's coffee cup paused at her lips. She forgot to drink. She had seen Crocodile's sandstorms swallow fleets and watched him turn oases into wastelands with his desiccating power, but she had never seen anyone counter a sandstorm this way-not by clashing with it using a stronger power, but by using physical laws to dismantle the foundation of a Devil Fruit ability.
Tashigi's sword hand trembled. She finally understood why Vice Admiral Garp had let such a dangerous person go to sea. This was no "flame user" in any conventional sense. This was...
"A furnace." Lin Yan lowered his hands, the reddish gold slowly fading from his eyes. "Throw everything into the flames and forge it into the shape I want-that's my power."
He looked toward the distant coastline. The outline of Nanohana Harbor was already clearly visible.
"We're going ashore. Crocodile already knows we're here, so there's no need to hide anymore."
"Let the desert kingdom see-"
"What real 'fire' is."
Meanwhile, inland in Alabasta, at Rainbase.
Crocodile sat in his luxurious office on the top floor of the Rain Dinners casino. The cigar in his hand fell onto the expensive carpet.
On the desk before him sat a sand table-a miniature desert model created with his ability, reflecting conditions offshore in real time. Just now, the yellow region representing his sandstorm had vanished as though rubbed out with an eraser.
It had not been defeated. It had been "erased."
"Impossible..." Crocodile rose and walked to the window. Outside lay Rainbase's bustling streets. This oasis city, maintained through his ability, was the symbol of his rule over Alabasta.
But now, for the first time in a long while, he sensed danger.
The brat called "Flame Emperor" was not using ordinary fire. That technique of instantly vaporizing seawater and then compressing it, that precise control over heat...
"A furnace...?" Crocodile narrowed his eyes and lit another cigar. "Interesting. So he's no ordinary Logia."
A burly man in a suit emerged from the shadows behind him-Mr. 1, Daz Bones, user of the Dice-Dice Fruit and the highest-ranking agent of Baroque Works.
"Boss, should I deal with them?"
"No." Crocodile exhaled a smoke ring. "Let them land. I'm curious what this 'Flame Emperor' actually wants. Alabasta's treasure? Or..."
He walked to his desk, opened a drawer, and took out a yellowed blueprint. It depicted a complex ancient machine, with annotations in the Ancient Script beside it.
Pluton.
The Ancient Weapon said to be capable of destroying an island with a single shot lay dormant somewhere in Alabasta.
"If that's what he's after..." Greed flashed in Crocodile's eyes. "Then this will be even more interesting."
He looked at Mr. 1. "Gather all the senior agents. Also, notify the Marines-tell them unidentified pirates have attacked an Affiliated Nation and request their 'assistance.'"
"Yes."
Mr. 1 turned and left.
Crocodile sat back down, tapping his fingers against the desk. On the sand table, the red dot representing the Flame Emperor was approaching Nanohana Harbor.
"Flame Emperor... Monkey D. Yan..."
"The D. Clan is always so irritating."
The World Government, Mary Geoise.
Inside the intelligence room, Den Den Mushi rang incessantly.
"Confirmed! An abnormal energy reaction has appeared off Alabasta's coast! Intensity rating... A+!"
"Large-scale seawater vaporization detected, covering an area five kilometers in diameter!"
"The sandstorm was cleared instantly. Method... suspected high-temperature steam!"
A masked CP0 agent in a white suit studied the report in his hands, his brow furrowing beneath his mask. Several Visual Den Den Mushi photographs attached to the report clearly showed the Flame Emperor and the burning-fist emblem on its bow.
"The Double D Flag... Monkey D. Yan..." the agent murmured. "Garp's adoptive grandson?"
He opened another file containing intelligence from the East Blue over the past three months: Arlong Park destroyed, the Buggy Pirates disbanded, Krieg's fleet annihilated... Every incident pointed to the same name.
And now this young man had reached the Grand Line and challenged one of the Shichibukai at his very first stop.
"Notify the Science Unit," the agent told his subordinate. "Have them analyze this 'high-temperature steam' ability. Also, update the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia-a suspected 'Furnace-Furnace Fruit' user has appeared. Logia, with the ability to control high temperatures and steam."
"The Furnace-Furnace Fruit? There's no record of it in the encyclopedia..."
"Then create a new classification," the agent said coldly. "An ability user of this caliber must be documented. Also, notify Marine Headquarters and have them raise the Flame Emperor's threat level."
"Yes!"
The subordinate hurried away.
The CP0 agent walked to the window and looked toward Pangaea Castle in the distance. It was the holy land where the Celestial Dragons lived, and the heart of the World Government.
"D... has appeared again," he murmured to himself. "How great a storm will it stir up this time?"
Outside the window, white clouds drifted leisurely by.
But the winds of the Grand Line had already changed direction.
Before you continue